A provider of a service, for example, telephone services, CATV services, data services, and the like, often operates or utilizes one or more call centers to receive and process calls from customers/subscribers/users regarding service offerings and/or service problems/needs. Similarly, a provider of a particular good, for example, computers, may operate or utilize one or more call centers to allow customers to receive help with purchased items/systems. In many such cases, a provider of goods or services may operate an internal call center for handling service calls.
An example service provision, such as a cable television (CATV) service provision, may be provided to customers via a broadband network, such as a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network. The broadband network may extend from a service provider's headend to a hubsite to a node. There may a given number of nodes per customer base, and each node may be identified by a node identifier (node ID). A service provider database may contain various pieces of customer information, which may include a node ID of the node to which the customer is physically tethered.
There may be times when it may be useful to know a customer's location, for example, based on a given service node associated with the customer, when the customer makes a call to a service provider call center. For example, there may be times when a competitor of the service provider may target a certain neighborhood or area and offer new products, sale prices, etc. That is, the competitor may run a campaign in the service provider's area to try to compete. In such a scenario, it would be useful for the service provider to know if a customer is calling from a given location which may be known by the service provider as an area being targeted by a competitor. By knowing such information, the call center may be able to treat the customer differently if the provider so chooses.
As another example, if there is a services outage in a certain area, it may be advantageous for the call center to know if an incoming call is from a customer associated with a services node in the given outage area so that the call may be handled in a predetermined specified way.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.